CAS promotes the teaching of Africa through curricular and faculty development. It informs a broader public through a vigorous outreach program of community projects and educators' workshops for K-12 teachers and coordinates a large offering of Africa-related courses throughout the university system. Building on the Rutgers commitment to international education, CAS also supports faculty research in Africa and builds linkages with Africa-based scholars, institutions of higher-learning and non-governmental organizations.
CAS members serve as consultants to public officials, businesses, schools and ngo's.

Senegal Service-Learning
"Youth Artists and Community Development"
July 14-28, 2015

The aim of this program is to expose students to the ways in which African youth are using music, dance, documentary film, graffiti, fashion, and more not only for entertainment purposes but to address social justice and human rights issues while also creating employment opportunities. Artistic activism is creatively and peacefully used to engage African youth to participate in dialogues for advocacy movements aimed at transformative social change. The course focuses on youth in Senegal and explores the ways in which they contribute to civic education and peace-building initiatives.
The fieldwork will give participants an opportunity to experience youth creative energy and its use for community development through visits to different artist and artisan community sites.

in support of students studying abroad in Senegal. Eligible applicants must be Rutgers students, and must have completed the application for the Senegal program before the March 13 application deadline. Scholarship awards will range between $500-$750, and will be reviewed internally by the Center for African Studies the week of March 16-20. All students accepted to the Senegal service learning program will automatically be considered, but preference will be given to students who demonstrate academic interest in Africa or African Studies and who have strong demonstrated financial need. Recipients of this scholarship will be notified by the end of March.

For more information on Senegal Service Learning please contact Service-Learning Coordinator Gregory Spear.

We're excited to report that Moya Bedward has received admission and a full fellowship to the Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA) [cmes.hmdc.harvard.edu] administered by the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University. CASA is a consortium of thirty five U. S. universities supported by the U.S. Department of Education. Her fellowship will cover her study for the summer and academic year 2015-2016 at the Qasid Arabic Institute in Amman, Jordan. CASA which is one of the most rigorous study programs of Arabic in the U.S. Study at CASA is renown for producing exceptionally high levels of Arabic competency for U. S. students. (The program's alternative site in Egypt was cancelled for security reasons) This study in Jordan will allow her to continue to sharpen her proficiency in Moroccan Arabic.

Moya is a Phd student in the history department who is working on a dissertation on the race and the formation of the Moroccan national identity during the nationalist period. We are very proud that Moya was a recipient of a Rutgers Center for African Studies graduate student grant last year which she used to study Arabic in Morocco. This training followed two summers of intensive Arabic study in Jordan and Egypt prior to her admission to the history graduate program, while an undergraduate at Queens College, CUNY.

We wish her Godspeed!

NEWS AT RUTGERS

The Rutgers Response to the Ebola Crisis in West Africa
Renewed Call to Action

(The announcement includes how to make financial donations, which medical supplies are most urgently needed, and where to ship the supplies. Your assistance is so greatly appreciated, we thank you for your generosity!)

The CAS Appeal to President Obama and Congress
to increase, broaden and quicken the response to the Ebola epidemic was Published in the NY Times on October 6, 2014!Co-written by Meredeth Turshen and Tefera Gezmu (Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, and Al Howard (History).

Announcements from Abena P. A. Busia:
Hassana Alidou, Ambassador of the Republic of Niger to the U.S.A.;
and The Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship

Dear CAS Family,

The moment arrived, and we are excited to share the evidence with you! Attached the photograph of Professor Alidou, the newly credentialed Ambassador of the Republic of Niger to the United States of America, with President Barack Obama. No, don't panic! We haven't yet lost our intrepid colleague. You will see from the second photograph that the new ambassador is Professor Hassana Alidou, formerly of UNESCO, seen in the second photograph with her family including her identical twin sister our Professor Ousseina Alidou, as well as her newly arrived grandson, Marcel Ousmane Kenechi Egbuonye, in the arms of his father, Chisom Egbuonye, standing beside his wife, Hassana's daughter, Nafissatou Egbuonye. Hassana's son, Halirou Abdoulaye Cisse, is pictured at far left.

The Center for African Studies sincerely congratulates Hassana and her family on this extraordinary accomplishment!

Dear CAS Community,

We are delighted to announce that we have received news that our bid
for The Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship has been successful. This
means that Rutgers Center for African Studies amongst the very first
cohort of organizations to be given this new very competitive fellowship,
under the auspices of The Institute For International Education.
This Fellowship, announced last year at the African Studies Association,
is directed at creating synergy between Africa born Diasporic scholars in
the United States, and continental African Universities, for
collaborative research, training, and co-curricular development and other
capacity building projects. It can be used to cover the cost of scholar
exchanges and intensive short term workshops amongst other projects. Our
particular grant will support Dr. Ousseina Alidou, Director of The Center
for African Studies and Dr. Abena Busia, Chair of Women’s and Gender
Studies, in going to West Africa to hold workshops related to the work of
the partnership between CAS and UNESCO in our ongoing initiative in
co-developing a curriculum in gender and transformative leadership for
Africa. CAS and UNESCO are working in partnership with African
universities Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria, the University of
Ghana, Legon, Tubman University in Liberia and the University of the
Gambia along with NGOs in those countries to create what, when completed,
will be a collectively owned flexible open source curriculum for a wide
range of communities.

PLEASE ENJOY THESE PICS FROM THE PRESIDENT KIKWETE PROGRAM AT RU SEPTEMBER 26

CAS sincerely thanks the Centers for Global Advancement and International Affairs for making this program a fantastic success! We were so very honored to receive President Kikwete and his team of delegates at Rutgers.

From left to right:
CAS receiving line and Peter March (from left to right: Renee Larrier (Associate Director, Center for African Studies), Abena P. A. Busia, Dorothy Hodgson, Peter March (Executive Dean, School of Arts and Sciences), and Ousseina Alidou)